I represent the first generation who, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson.
Read the full "Pre-ramble"

Monday, June 29, 2015

This Week in Television History: June 2015 PART V

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

July 2, 1955

The
long-running musical-variety program The Lawrence Welk Show debuts on
ABC.Welk, a bandleader from North
Dakota known for light dance music, had launched his own show in 1951 on KTLA in Los Angeles. The show
remained a network hit for some 16 years, then became a syndicated series. Welk
retired in 1982 and died in 1992.

July 3, 1950

TV game show Pantomime Quiz Show debuts as a
network series on CBS.

The program, a
variation of charades, ran for 13 years, although it changed networks several
times. The show began as a local program in Los Angeles in 1947. In 1949, the
show was one of TV's first programs to win an Emmy, first awarded by the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences that year.

Most shows featured a guest star, usually a well known singer or musician,
most commonly within popular music or sometimes rock, folk, jazz or other
musical genres. After one or two opening numbers by the Pops, the guest would
be brought onstage. Usually the guest would sing several their own hits or
songs associated with them, with accompaniment by the Pops. After concluding
their set, the guest artist would leave the stage, and the Pops would play one
or two closing numbers. The three men who served as Boston Pops Conductor
during the show's run – Arthur
Fiedler (1970-79), John
Williams (1979-95) and Keith
Lockhart (1996-2005) – appeared. Gene
Galusha provided narration and announced most of the pieces played.

CHILD OF TELEVISION @ iTunes

Pre-ramble

I represent the first generation whom, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson.
Read the full "Pre-ramble"